Chelsea Transfer Ban Won’t Put Off Zidane

Chelsea To Appeal Transfer Ban

Zinedine Zidane won’t be deterred about taking over at Chelsea despite the club’s forthcoming transfer ban.

The Frenchman is expected to replace Maurizio Sarri at the end of the season but a spanner has been thrown into the works with the news of a ban on signing new players.

Fifa announced on Friday that they had found Chelsea guilty of signing no fewer than 29 players under the age of 18 in contravention of the confederation’s rules on child trafficking.

However, Chelsea are expected to appeal the decision. That usually means a direct appeal to Fifa and if that doesn’t succeed then the case will be taken to the Court Of Arbitration For Sport. CAS hearings can take months to resolve but the ban will be frozen while the appeal takes place.

If there is no decision by 1 June then the Blues would be free to sign new players this summer. If the ban is upheld they would then be banned from making any new signings in both the January and the summer windows of 2020.

In the meantime the Blues can be expected to make a raft of new signings this summer to see them through to the end of any ban.

Reports earlier this week suggested that Zidane would only take on the job if he receives a £200million transfer kitty. How such a figure might fit in with Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations depends on outgoings. Eden Hazard is being linked with a £100million move to Real Madrid although Zidane also wants the Belgium international to sign a new deal at Stamford Bridge. Hazard spoke of his admiration for Zidane on a number of occasions last season when he was already angling for a move to the Bernabeu. Zidane was still in charge at the La Liga side at that stage.

Chelsea have also been fined £460,000 and given 90 days “to regularise the situation of the minor players concerned”.